University of British Columbia Reviews in Vancouver, BC Area

Pros

Child and Family Research Institute has many excellent labs
Resource for science graduate students are great
Many research opportunities
Great mentors
Collaborations can be formed easily

Cons

Getting reimbursement for trips takes a while

Pros

Great benefits and pay and a beautiful campus

Cons

A lot of bureaucracy. Some departments are likely great to work at. Some are very challenging to work at - depending on management.

Pros

- great facilities (food options, rec facilities, discounts on campus)
- ability to take courses for free!
- great benefits

Cons

- CUPE positions are not well paid
- location is very far away from the rest of the city - I had a one hour commute from East Vancouver
- there is no standardization of salaries, position titles among Faculties

Advice to Senior Management

CUPE positions need to be better compensated and position titles and salaries should be standardized among Faculties.

Pros

Inspiring workplace, fair compensation, excellent benefits

Cons

Disconnect between departments, difficult to follow an academic year for vacation-scheduling

Pros

the pay was very good

Cons

management not looking at the big picture; management not visiting casuals on job site; management contradicting their own policies and procedures; management construing situational stories as they see it; not as it really is; management dismissing casual staff right after a family member dies; management seducing the union

Advice to Senior Management

visit the Dalia Lama or Thich Naht Hahn and learn about unity, love, kindness, compassion, deep listening, deep understanding

Pros

UBC allows their graduate students to be full instructors for first year math classes which allows them to build up their CV.

Cons

There is a lot of bureaucracy at this university and there is a lot of extra paperwork involved in the process. Organizational skills are lacking when it comes to assigning teaching and TAship duties. Often the number of hours are unfairly distributed.

Pros

- Being at the leading edge of research
- Great potential for interdisciplinary collaborations
- Opportunity to make good connections in academia and industry

Cons

- No benefits of any kind
- Low salary / high expectations
- Have to live in Vancouver west-side (more expensive), or elsewhere but with a bad commute

Advice to Senior Management

Postdocs are cheap research workhorses for the great things we accomplish; we need to be much better compensated.

Pros

Health insurance, maternity leaves are financed by the school, helpful HR, possibility to take teaching workshops.

Cons

If you are working under PI supervision, choose the right person. Once you signed a contract nobody cares how much you work. It can be 12 hours 6 days a week and your PI will be unhappy with your work. I saw people who were postdocs for 10 years! They were transferring from one PI to another without any career growth.

Advice to Senior Management

Check what the assistant and associate professors are doing. Protect people who work for them.

Pros

There is a hood employee vacation rate. The job is stable and the pay is fairly high. The work place enviroment is stress free

Cons

It's is far away from my home. The jobs are not permanent unless you hold a high academic degree. And overall not a good location.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest more money in the labraruary equipments. Value your employes and don't pay the monthly payments late because your employees expect ontime pay.

Pros

Employees are protected by regulations so management have to follow proper procedure to treat employees right.

Cons

Unionized environment creates difficulty for middle management to effectively manage with appropriate incentives - no incentive for unionized workers to produce

Advice to Senior Management

Should provide more training opportunities & actual support for middle management.